In California we vote on everything--including whether we have to keep voting on everything

Photo-illustration for Time by John Ueland; Schwarzenegger: Joern Pollex / Getty; Newsom: Robert Galbraith / Reuters

Before I moved to California, I enjoyed voting. Once every four years, I thought very deeply for a very long time about the presidential candidates and then voted for the Democrat. I left the crappy high school gym knowing I had voted for a government that would bring progress and change, ignoring the fact that the high school gym kept getting crappier.

But once I got to Los Angeles, I learned that the East Coast version of democracy is weak. In L.A. we vote all the time, on everything. We've already voted twice since everybody else last voted in November. Thanks...